Wonder if their secretions would be useful against flesh-eating bacteria?

Insects and their young-uns can be amazingly useful in helping out in the medical field.For example...maggots. Icky and disgusting...but they are the best damn cleaners of a septic wound that ever walked, flew, crawled or squirmed. They target ONLY the necrotic flesh, leaving the healthy living stuff behind- and their size allows them a smaller-than-pinpoint accuracy in their zone of work.

Ever looked at...I mean REALLY looked at...a wasp's paper nest? Not just the construction is elegant, but the texture of the 'paper' itself. All the soft, subtle shades of grey, cream, white, tan, etc. that indicate the various woods that were chewed up to produce it.

Used to have an abandoned wasp's nest as a decoration (read: 'cool or interesting thing that sits on your bookshelf and collects dust') until one of the more intrepid cats found it and discovered it made a great toy...

Think I've been watching too many episodes of "Bones". I'm starting to sound like Hodges...

Living on a pecan orchard, wasps are my little buddies. They are the #1 enemy of the tent caterpillars that come out every spring. A single tent caterpillar ball can strip all the leaves off a large tree in a week, ruining the tree's yield for at least two years.But all you have to do is to tear a hole in the silk ball and let the wasps go at it. They'll kill every last one of them and after a bit the silk ball will dry out and blow away. They sell pesticides to kill the caterpillars, but I have never used them.

Funny thing about them, too. My aunt who lives with us has a great phobia of flying insects and wants to kill them when they build their nests on the eaves of the house. When she goes out of the house they become agitated and she has been stung several times. But I can go right around where ever they are and they never bother me, even when I am banging on things with a hammer right near them. I can work right around a basketball sized wasp nest for hours and forget they are there. They buzz me to check me out sometimes when I first get there but that's about it. I have never been stung by a wasp.

Wonder if their secretions would be useful against flesh-eating bacteria?

Insects and their young-uns can be amazingly useful in helping out in the medical field.For example...maggots. Icky and disgusting...but they are the best damn cleaners of a septic wound that ever walked, flew, crawled or squirmed. They target ONLY the necrotic flesh, leaving the healthy living stuff behind- and their size allows them a smaller-than-pinpoint accuracy in their zone of work.

Ever looked at...I mean REALLY looked at...a wasp's paper nest? Not just the construction is elegant, but the texture of the 'paper' itself. All the soft, subtle shades of grey, cream, white, tan, etc. that indicate the various woods that were chewed up to produce it.

Used to have an abandoned wasp's nest as a decoration (read: 'cool or interesting thing that sits on your bookshelf and collects dust') until one of the more intrepid cats found it and discovered it made a great toy...

Think I've been watching too many episodes of "Bones". I'm starting to sound like Hodges...

Too much TV in general, if the line between fantasy and reality is getting so blurred you think maggots eat only necrotic flesh.

/this is where Fix-a-Flat cosmetic surgeons come from//maggots eat anything they can reach, including each other///wound surfaces increased in clinical studies of maggot debridement therapy, so it seriously needs to be dropped in the same file as "leeching"

varmitydog:Living on a pecan orchard, wasps are my little buddies. They are the #1 enemy of the tent caterpillars that come out every spring. A single tent caterpillar ball can strip all the leaves off a large tree in a week, ruining the tree's yield for at least two years.But all you have to do is to tear a hole in the silk ball and let the wasps go at it. They'll kill every last one of them and after a bit the silk ball will dry out and blow away. They sell pesticides to kill the caterpillars, but I have never used them.

Funny thing about them, too. My aunt who lives with us has a great phobia of flying insects and wants to kill them when they build their nests on the eaves of the house. When she goes out of the house they become agitated and she has been stung several times. But I can go right around where ever they are and they never bother me, even when I am banging on things with a hammer right near them. I can work right around a basketball sized wasp nest for hours and forget they are there. They buzz me to check me out sometimes when I first get there but that's about it. I have never been stung by a wasp.

If she's that afraid of them, just knowing they're around will get her worked up enough to start breathing more rapidly and increase her anxiety. Once that happens, the wasps are attracted to the increased carbon dioxide she's breathing out. They come over to investigate, she freaks out more, they see her as a threat, they attack. If you're calm and go about your business they'll leave you alone. I've been in pest control for years and have never been stung by a wasp or bee because I stay calm around them. Yellow jackets, though, will sting you just to be an ass. They're the only insects that are territorial.

varmitydog:Living on a pecan orchard, wasps are my little buddies. They are the #1 enemy of the tent caterpillars that come out every spring. A single tent caterpillar ball can strip all the leaves off a large tree in a week, ruining the tree's yield for at least two years.But all you have to do is to tear a hole in the silk ball and let the wasps go at it. They'll kill every last one of them and after a bit the silk ball will dry out and blow away. They sell pesticides to kill the caterpillars, but I have never used them.

Funny thing about them, too. My aunt who lives with us has a great phobia of flying insects and wants to kill them when they build their nests on the eaves of the house. When she goes out of the house they become agitated and she has been stung several times. But I can go right around where ever they are and they never bother me, even when I am banging on things with a hammer right near them. I can work right around a basketball sized wasp nest for hours and forget they are there. They buzz me to check me out sometimes when I first get there but that's about it. I have never been stung by a wasp.

I've been stung by wasps, but very few times (once? twice?) Now compare that to honeybees, who have stung me, I don't now, hundreds of times in my life.

Also we always have big fat bumblebees buzzing around our shed. I've never been stung by one of them, either. In fact, one likes to hover over our deck, and sort of "hang out" with us. Just hover three feet in front of us and watch us. Then zoom away. Then come back to the same spot. If I get up and walk toward it, it zooms away or backs up, but that's it.

But if I'm trimming the bushes or something, and there's a honeybee, it nails me every time.

The wasps then drag the roaches by their antenna, akin to a human pulling a dog on a leash, into a protected nook and lay an egg on the roach. The egg ultimately hatches into larvae that devour the roach from the inside out.

Wonder if their secretions would be useful against flesh-eating bacteria?

Insects and their young-uns can be amazingly useful in helping out in the medical field.For example...maggots. Icky and disgusting...but they are the best damn cleaners of a septic wound that ever walked, flew, crawled or squirmed. They target ONLY the necrotic flesh, leaving the healthy living stuff behind- and their size allows them a smaller-than-pinpoint accuracy in their zone of work.

Ever looked at...I mean REALLY looked at...a wasp's paper nest? Not just the construction is elegant, but the texture of the 'paper' itself. All the soft, subtle shades of grey, cream, white, tan, etc. that indicate the various woods that were chewed up to produce it.

Used to have an abandoned wasp's nest as a decoration (read: 'cool or interesting thing that sits on your bookshelf and collects dust') until one of the more intrepid cats found it and discovered it made a great toy...

Think I've been watching too many episodes of "Bones". I'm starting to sound like Hodges...

Too much TV in general, if the line between fantasy and reality is getting so blurred you think maggots eat only necrotic flesh.

/this is where Fix-a-Flat cosmetic surgeons come from//maggots eat anything they can reach, including each other///wound surfaces increased in clinical studies of maggot debridement therapy, so it seriously needs to be dropped in the same file as "leeching"

Wrong. Maggot therapy works and has particularly helped diabetics that get wounds in extremities. Such wounds can be healed in weeks using maggot therapy instead of months and often prevent necessary amputations.

Blowfly larvae will only eat dead flesh and also exude chemicals that seem to help healthy tissue.

varmitydog:Living on a pecan orchard, wasps are my little buddies. They are the #1 enemy of the tent caterpillars that come out every spring. A single tent caterpillar ball can strip all the leaves off a large tree in a week, ruining the tree's yield for at least two years.But all you have to do is to tear a hole in the silk ball and let the wasps go at it. They'll kill every last one of them and after a bit the silk ball will dry out and blow away. They sell pesticides to kill the caterpillars, but I have never used them.

Funny thing about them, too. My aunt who lives with us has a great phobia of flying insects and wants to kill them when they build their nests on the eaves of the house. When she goes out of the house they become agitated and she has been stung several times. But I can go right around where ever they are and they never bother me, even when I am banging on things with a hammer right near them. I can work right around a basketball sized wasp nest for hours and forget they are there. They buzz me to check me out sometimes when I first get there but that's about it. I have never been stung by a wasp.

She probably stares at the nest, too. Protip: Most animals know what that pair of round things on your face is for. And they rarely like the attention.

Kibbler: Also we always have big fat bumblebees buzzing around our shed. I've never been stung by one of them, either. In fact, one likes to hover over our deck, and sort of "hang out" with us. Just hover three feet in front of us and watch us. Then zoom away. Then come back to the same spot. If I get up and walk toward it, it zooms away or backs up, but that's it.

I don't know much about bumblebees but your bees act just like carpenter bees, the bees that bore holes in the not living wood here in north Florida. They are both nosy and peaceable. If you walk quickly right around where they have bored their nest you can literally bump into them while they hover and they won't do anything. Even though I live less than 20 miles from where Tupelo honey is cultivated (and where the movie "Ulee's Gold" was filmed) we no longer have any honey bees around here, due to some kind of fungus. But we do have the carpenter bees, who serve the same purpose. I have an long wood fence covered with confederate jasmine that they stay in right next to my kitchen garden near the house. They will follow you around and sometimes hover near you when you come out to work in the garden in warm weather, something which freaks my aunt out completely.

Cardrico Lajuan Nash : Yellow jackets, though, will sting you just to be an ass. They're the only insects that are territorial.I remember those things from when I lived up in Virginia. Make their nests in the ground, with more than one hole. I went to mow the grass one day in loose fitting pants, briefly paused over one of the holes and got stung 7 times up the leg. Got pissed off and went to burn them out with a cup of gas and they nailed me 4 more times from the other exit. Aye, they are some bad buggers, that's for certain.

Fark This!:And cockroaches can't stand humans. It's been shown that they 'clean' themselves obsessively after being touched by a human.

I wouldn't exactly say they all "can't stand" humans, exactly-- some kinds will actually allow themselves to be handled, but they will clean themselves afterwards. (They often clean themselves, generally.)

/worked for an entomologist years ago, held various big roaches, including Madagascar hissing ones//They don't hiss as much if they get too used to people///Getting a kick, etc.

varmitydog:Kibbler: Also we always have big fat bumblebees buzzing around our shed. I've never been stung by one of them, either. In fact, one likes to hover over our deck, and sort of "hang out" with us. Just hover three feet in front of us and watch us. Then zoom away. Then come back to the same spot. If I get up and walk toward it, it zooms away or backs up, but that's it.

I don't know much about bumblebees but your bees act just like carpenter bees, the bees that bore holes in the not living wood here in north Florida. They are both nosy and peaceable. If you walk quickly right around where they have bored their nest you can literally bump into them while they hover and they won't do anything. Even though I live less than 20 miles from where Tupelo honey is cultivated (and where the movie "Ulee's Gold" was filmed) we no longer have any honey bees around here, due to some kind of fungus. But we do have the carpenter bees, who serve the same purpose. I have an long wood fence covered with confederate jasmine that they stay in right next to my kitchen garden near the house. They will follow you around and sometimes hover near you when you come out to work in the garden in warm weather, something which freaks my aunt out completely.

Cardrico Lajuan Nash : Yellow jackets, though, will sting you just to be an ass. They're the only insects that are territorial.I remember those things from when I lived up in Virginia. Make their nests in the ground, with more than one hole. I went to mow the grass one day in loose fitting pants, briefly paused over one of the holes and got stung 7 times up the leg. Got pissed off and went to burn them out with a cup of gas and they nailed me 4 more times from the other exit. Aye, they are some bad buggers, that's for certain.

Got harassed by some yellowjackets while trying to clean some outside windows using the vinegar-and-old newspaper technique. Little shiats were attracted to the vinegar. This kinda puzzled me- it was just plain old white vinegar, not cider or wine or otherwise 'fancy'.

They left me alone after I exchanged the vinegar for ammonia though...